


Oleander Honey

by indigorose50



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Background Relationships, Crushes, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, No Spoilers, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Time Skip, Protectiveness, Spitefic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25148854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigorose50/pseuds/indigorose50
Summary: "Stealing herself, Bernadetta reached out a hand and swiped a cloth napkin off the table above her. She pulled out a spare bit of charcoal and looked around for a subject.Hubert wasn’t doing anything in particular."After being dragged to the Ball, Bernadetta does something to pass the time.
Relationships: Bernadetta von Varley/Hubert von Vestra
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	Oleander Honey

**Author's Note:**

> Idea given to me by the ever lovely Moeblob. People were being rude about them drawing Hubert and Bernadetta together and they responded by drawing them MORE. I wanted to get in on the spitefest with this fluffy number! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> And remember, no matter what someone ships, don't be a jerk <3

Bernadetta hated everything about where she was right now. The ball was supposed to be fun. Dorothea had promised Bernadetta that it was a night to relax, dance, and enjoy the night with everyone. 

But neither dancing nor the idea of being around  _ everyone _ was relaxing to Bernadetta. So she had found the table farthest away from the dance floor and promptly camped out under it. The tablecloth wasn’t long enough to hide her completely but it wasn’t as if people went around parties checking under tables, right? 

So far, no one had invaded her space. Edelgard and Dorothea had passed by at one point talking loudly about how Bernadetta had gone missing and wouldn’t it be funny if she heard us talking and realized we missed her and came out from where she was hiding? Other than that, Bernadetta was not disturbed.

Perhaps it would be easier if she could just mingle with the other students. They weren’t  _ all _ likely to hurt her. And at the very least Alois was nice. Maybe she could just stick by him all night.

Bernadetta shook her head. Venturing out was too scary. The best plan was to wait under here until everyone was gone. Then she could sneak out, grab something sweet, and head back to her room. 

The only issue, she was realizing, was that there wasn’t much to do other than people watch. That was alright for a while: Annette and Mercedes spun together on the dance floor. Ingrid, Caspar, and Sylvain were on their second straight hour of chatting by the drinks table. Leonie had coaxed Marianne out of her corner and was ever so slowly guiding her to the dance floor. Seteth and Professor Byleth had gone out the doors leading to the Goddess Tower a while ago— separately of course, but Bernadetta put the pieces together. She hadn’t seen Felix or Ferdinand for a while. 

Even that lost its appeal after a time. Stealing herself, Bernadetta reached out a hand and swiped a cloth napkin off the table above her. She pulled out a spare bit of charcoal and looked around for a subject. 

Lady Rhea cut a regal silhouette, of course. Catherine, with her sword ever strapped to her side, would also be interesting. Lysithea had a rare smile on her face as Lorenz ranted at her about something or other which Bernadetta would love to capture. 

As she scanned the room, rolling the charcoal between her fingers, one figure kept catching her eye. 

Hubert wasn’t doing anything in particular. He had his back to the wall not far from her, arms crossed and one leg bent slightly for balance. As Edelgard trailed around the room— sometimes with Dorothea, sometimes with Petra, sometimes with a nameless student— Hubert’s eyes followed her. The way the torches flickered behind him, his hair tucked just so behind one ear, jaw set as if disapproving of the whole affair, positioned in a way that suggested he could push off the wall and fire off a spell if the need arose… 

Bernadetta stared at him from under the table for a few moments more before bending her head to the napkin resting against her knees. Given her medium, she decided to just focus on him from the waist up. Fussy details like his hair and mouth would be easier if she didn’t try and draw the whole scene around him. 

“Oops, sorry, Hubert,” she found herself muttering. “Made your neck a little small. Let’s just color this in… there! Now it blends into the collar of your uniform.” Smiling, Bernadetta glanced back up at her subject. He hadn’t moved at all. She tried to remember if he had moved all evening. Had he eaten? Danced?

“Maybe you’re like me,” she said to her Hubert doodle. “I don’t like being the center of attention either.” As she spoke, she shaded in part of the background, making it look like he was looming in the shadows rather than a brightly lit ballroom. 

She added a table beside him with a sinister-looking vial lying open on its side. Then, remembering a book she had found in the library recently, she added a poisonous flower in a vase beside that. “You’ve been busy,” Bernadetta told him. Though she had no idea what he might have been doing. Probably something in Edelgard’s name. 

The charcoal was getting harder to work with. It needed to be sharpened something awful. Working on napkin was also proving to be a challenge. Bernadetta resolved to sketch this again on paper when she got back to her room. She tried to get the shadows just right on his hair. “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

“Will you now?”

Bernadetta jumped so violently that she banged her head on the underside of the table. Crouched beside the table, holding up a bit of hanging cloth to look under, was Hubert. His eyes narrowed as Bernadetta whimpered and rubbed the top of her head. “Are you alright?”

“W-W-What are you doing here?” She was finally able to say.

“I heard you talking.” He pointed to the napkin. “May I?” 

Bernadetta didn’t answer but she also made no move to stop Hubert as he slipped the napkin out from her limp fingers. He stared at it, raising one eyebrow. Bernadetta wondered if it was too late to pretend the blow to the head had knocked her unconscious. 

“Is this how I’ve looked to you all evening?” Hubert said at last, holding up the drawing.

“N-No! I mean— I saw you standing there and then I kept adding stuff. You just looked so cool and intimidating— well, you always look intimidating to me. But even more so! Because everything around you is so cheerful and then you look like  _ that _ and it was fun to draw and you have great hair and eyes and… and you’re going to kill me now, aren’t you?”

Hubert stared at her with no small amount of bewilderment. Not letting go of the napkin, he shifted so he was kneeling. “First of all, no. I am not going to kill you.”

“You sure?”

“Very.” His lips quirked. “Among other reasons, we are surrounded by nearly every faculty member in this place. I would not be able to run far.”

Bernadetta squeaked. “D-Don’t make jokes like that!”

“Secondly, you chose to draw me, out of everyone else in his room, because you… like my hair?”

“And eyes! I-I was watching how close you watched Edel— Lady Edelgard.” She hugged herself. “Made me wish I had someone watching over me like that. I’d feel better about slipping back to my room, at least.”

Hubert looked back down at the napkin. The background, since it was so thickly shaded for effect, had smudged a bit as a result of the handling. The lip quirk turned into a full smirk. He seemed… proud? “I wasn’t even trying to look so threatening.” He peered closer. “And the flower?”

Bernadetta scoot forward. If he were lower to the ground, they would be shoulder to shoulder. “T-That’s oleander. You can’t tell because I don’t have any colors but it’s supposed to be pink. Every part of it is dangerous. Even its leaves can irritate your skin!”

“Is that so?”

“You want to know the most interesting part?! There have been cases where honey made from bees who visited oleander flowers made people sick! Imagine something like honey being dangerous just because of one flower! And…” she trailed off, realizing Hubert was no longer looking at the napkin. Those eyes she had complemented before were now on her. The smirk had settled into something softer. “U-Um, sorry. I just read a book about them so I… Uh, is something wrong?”

Hubert shook his head, handing her back the napkin. “Nothing.” He shuffled backward and stood. She couldn’t see all of him from under the table but she could see his hand reaching down to her. “Bernadetta…”

_ Oh no, I  _ knew _ I talked too much and I’ve embarrassed myself. Now he feels sorry for me. He’s going to ask me to dance. I can’t say no! He’ll  _ kill _ me! But I don’t want to dance, I don’t want to be out there with everyone staring! I can’t— _

“Bernadetta, may I escort you back to your room?”

“Huh?” Briefly more confused than scared, she stuck her head out. 

Hubert was still standing there, still had his hand out, still not-quite smirking. “I said, may I escort you back to your room?”

Bernadetta looked around. The ball was still in full swing. Shamir was talking to a trembling Ignatz. Hilda and Claude were chatting at a table across the room, Hapi next to them with a dozing Linhardt on her shoulder. “But what about Edelgard?” Bernadetta asked, finding their house leader at the food table with Petra. 

“Edelgard does not need me at the moment,” Hubert said matter-of-factly. As if he was not constantly glued to her side. “I doubt she will miss if I’m gone for a few moments.”

Professor Byleth and Seteth slipped back into the room, Byleth’s face as stone as ever while Seteth fiddled with his collar. Bernadetta looked up at Hubert. “O-Okay. Yes.” She took his hand.

He pulled her smoothly to her feel and had her arm wrapped around his before she could properly freak out about the idea. A few people glanced over, probably wondering where Hubert hand conjured Bernadetta from. “It’s alright,” Hubert murmured as she tensed. “They will not bother you with me here. Half are too scared and half don’t care.” 

Even as he spoke, Dorothea caught Bernadetta’s eye and winked. Bernadetta felt herself shift closer to Hubert, suddenly more scared of that wink than him.

They left the ballroom without hindrance. Someone was singing just outside but Hubert pulled them along swiftly. It was much more peaceful here under the moonlight than in the glittering hall. They walked by the classrooms where suspicious giggling echoed. As they passed by Raphael’s room, Bernadetta could hear snoring.

The short walk back was calming. No one was staring at them now. No one to pressure her to dance or join them at a table. Hubert did not speak as they walked, so she didn’t even have to worry about conversation. Usually paranoid played with her mind in the dark but with Hubert so close she found it hard to be afraid. She rested her cheek against his arm, reveling in the quiet.

As nice as the walk had been, Bernadetta was more than relieved to reach her room. Hubert untangled them and gave a shot bow. “Safe and sound,” he said. “And unbothered, just as I said.”

She nodded. As he straightened, she surged forward to hug him around the middle “T-Thank you so much, Hubert!” Her voice was  _ much _ too high but by the Goddess she needed to say this. “Even after all the weird stuff I said, thank you for getting me out of there!”

Hesitantly, as if hugs were foreign concepts, Hubert hugged her. His right arm held her closer while his left held the back of her head. His fingers almost touched the spot she had hit on the table earlier. “Bernadetta,” he said softly. “You  _ are _ a strange one. But I would never harm you for that. Do you understand?”

Not trusting her voice this time, she nodded against his chest. It was too bad he wasn’t the touchy-feely type— this was a nice hug. Comforting. 

“Unless of course you decided to hinder Lady Edelgard in some way.”

“Can you stop saying things like that?!”

She felt rather than heard him chuckle. “Apologies.” He pressed a kiss to the top of her heard,  _ right _ on the spot from before. That had to be on purpose, right? “If you ever need an escort again, you only have to ask. I’ll take care of you.”

Now  _ that _ had to be on purpose,  _ right _ ?! Bernadetta thought of the Hubert on the napkin she wanted to put properly on paper and pushed away. “G-Good night! Thanks again! B-Bye!” 

All her courage was gone. She scurried into her room and shut the door in his face. Despite his words just now, Bernadetta was sure he was about to force his way inside and wring her neck for being so rude. 

When nothing of the sort happened, she pressed her ear to the door. She heard Hubert chuckle again and tensed. Then his footsteps faded back in the direction of the ball.

Bernadetta sighed and stumbled to her bed to lay down face first. After a few moments spent doing a mental check in to make sure had, in fact, survived all that, Bernadetta rolled over and pulled out the napkin. 

There were more smudges than before. She winced, realizing Hubert had handled the charcoal mess with while gloves on. 

“I’ll take care of you,” she told the drawing. 

And indeed she took out a fresh page from her bedside table and redid the sketch almost the exact same way. After that, Bernadetta took out a second page and drew Hubert with that softened smirk, an outstretched and, though it caused Bernadetta to blush quite a bit, wearing an embroidered oleander flower. 


End file.
